A menu, a pumpkin bread recipe, a love letter, the horoscope section of a
magazine, a letter of resignation or of recommendation, a news report, a
leaflet, or any other sketch of language is a text.

REFLEXÃO
If any sketch of language is a text, are public signs texts too?

They certainly are. These minimal texts do not need to be combined
with any other language unit to be understood in their totality. Thus, we
can conclude they are texts.
The meaningfulness of texts does not depend on their linguistic size.
According to Verdonk (2002, p. 17), public signs, just like any other text,
fulfill the basic requirement of forming a meaningful whole. They are all
complete in themselves, in terms of communicative meaning.
1

So, if the meaningfulness of texts does not depend on their linguistc size,
what does it depende on?
Let’s try to figure it out together. Suppose you see the sign below in the
collection of a souvenir-hunter. How do you interpret it?

Maybe you will say it is a traffic sign (that is not serving its purpose
anymore) but you have no clue of its meaning. Because of its dissociation
from its ordinary context, you are not able to make sense out of it - which is
perfectly understandable.
What an alien situational context!!!! How can I relate a traffic sign to the
other items of the souvenir collection?
But suppose you see the same sign when you are driving your car or
riding your motorcycle on your way to work. How should you interpret it?
It’s much easier now. You should interpret it as a WARNING. You
understand the message the sign conveys because of its location in a
particular context. You can recognize it as TEXT, not because of its length,
but because of its function in this specific context – a context you are familiar
with.
In this case, even if you can’t figure out its precise meaning (though, as a
driver or motorcycle rider, you should know it by heart), the situation is selfexplanatory. Thus, as you prepare yourself for some surprising thing on the
way you start to drive slowly, with caution.
Based on all that has been discussed so far, how can we define text then?
A unit of language in use. It is not a grammatical
unit, like a clause or a sentence; and it is not defined
by its size. It is best regarded as a semantic unit: a
unit not of form but of meaning. Thus is related to a
clause or sentence by realization (Halliday and Hasan,
1976, p. 1-2)

What does it mean then? It means that a text is completely dependent
on its use in an appropriate situational context.
Written sketches of language are texts. How about oral language?
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976, p. 1), from now on H&H, ‘a text
may be spoken or written, prose or verse, dialogue or monologue. It may be
2

anything from a single proverb to a whole play, from a momentary cry for
help to an all-day discussion on a committee’. Thus, a text is any instance of
living language that is playing some part or doing some job in a context of
situation, as opposed to isolated words or sentences. What does not fulfill
this basic requirement is a non-text.

d.
- What do you call a fish with no eye?
- FSH!
Extracted from: Click Here [6]
e.

The child without parents cannot enjoy the life other

children live. From one hand it’s great to be the only child in a family but
in some cases it’s not. And the family tree has a long history that
sometimes are so ancient that we cannot remember the member of it, the
name and occupation. And you shouldn’t break my heart because of that.
Adapted from: Click Here [7]

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

ANSWERS:
a. ( T ) Click Here [8] - a sexist cartoon showing a dialogue
between two women about a car accident one of them had.
b. ( T ) Click Here [9] - an attempt of dialogue between a wife and
her husband who insists on ignoring her.
c. ( NT ) Click Here [10] – This video shows two kids quarreling.
They keep repeating words like "yes", "no", “I said yes”, “I said no”, “I
said no first”, and “be quiet”, but what we simply cannot understand is
what they are quarreling about. As it is not coherent to us,
viewers/observers, we can say this instance of “living language” is
doing no job in this context of situation. It sounds as a sequence of
isolated words and sentences. Maybe the kids know what they are
quarreling about and what they say is coherent to them.
d. ( T )
- What do you call a fish with no eye?
- FSH!
3

Extracted from: Click Here [11] - This is joke, in the form of a dialogue,
based on the pronunciation of the letter “i”, pronounced /ai/.
e. ( NT ) The child without parents cannot enjoy the life other
children live. From one hand it’s great to be the only child in a family
but in some cases it’s not. And the family tree has a long history that
sometimes are so ancient that we cannot remember the member of it,
the name and occupation. And you shouldn’t break my heart because
of that.
Adapted from: Click Here [12] - This instance of “living language”
is doing no job in this context of situation. It sounds as a sequence of
isolated words and sentences and serve no purpose. It is not coherent
to the reader and it cannot be coherent to the writer.

According to Verdonk (2002, p. 18), "the meaning of a text
does not come into being until it is actively employed in a context
of use" and "this process of activation of a text by relating it to a
context of use is what we call discourse". The author still
explains that the contextualization of a text, written or spoken, is
actually
the
reader's/hearer's
reconstruction
of
the
writer's/speaker's intended message, that is, her/his
communicative act or discourse. In these terms, the text is the
observable product of the writer's/speaker's discourse, which in
turn must be seen as the process that has created it.

To better understand this concept, let’s go back to the warning sign
discussed in the previous lesson.

We discovered that without the help of the situational context, we could
not infer the meaning of “RAMP AHEAD”. Among the collection items, it
didn’t serve its original purpose: warning drivers about some surprising
event ahead on the road. Naturally, if the message had been expressed
differently, such as by means of the following signs, it could have helped a lot
more:

Why is it then? Because each text offers a pictorial cue or signal which
helps us reconstruct, in this case, the writer’s discourse and that certainly
makes a big difference to the understanding of the word “ramp”.
5

If we re-contextualized “RAMP AHEAD”, that is, if we changed the
context of situation, the meaning would be completely different. Let’s see
how it would be.

See? Now the text is followed by a picture that indicates we are not
referring to a warning road sign anymore. Just by looking at the picture, we
can infer the meaning of the word “ramp” [2]. Again, the picture functions as
a signal to help us reconstruct the writer’s discourse.
As a reader or a hearer, you should always search the text for signals
that may help you reconstruct the writer's/speaker's discourse. Your
understanding of a sketch of language is firmly rooted in a specific context of
use.

We can better define discourse making use of Verdonk’s (2002, p. 22)
words one more time:

A discourse is a context-bound act of communication verbalized in a text, and
waiting to be inferred from it.

In other words, we can say it is “the meaning the reader constructs from
the text during the reading process [or during a conversation]” (WALLACE,
1992, p. 14).
According to Wallace (1992), there is not just a single discourse but a
number of discourses which can be recovered by a reader/hearer from any
text. These discourses are essentially social rather than personal and
individual in that they relate to social practices and beliefs. To her, they are
ways of talking or writing about persons, places, events, or phenomena
which relate to conventional beliefs or ways of doing things which are, in
turn, associated with a society’s key institution. For example, there are
conventional ways of talking or writing about phenomena such as dating,
public schools, or family pets related to the social institutions of marriage,
education, and the family.
Wallace also states that discourses typically reflect differences of power
between the members of different social groups, for example, ways of talking
about the roles of men and women in both the family and the workplace
frequently indicate a less powerful position for women. Thus, we tend to talk
of ‘man and wife’ rather than ‘woman and husband’.

6

PRACTICE
1. Identify the types of discourse below by putting the numbers of the
texts in parentheses. Not all the numbers are to be used. Also indicate if
the instance is an excerpt of oral or written discourse.
Nature of discourse
Number
of
the
text

Discourse

oral

Written

media discourse
legal discourse
the discourse
lawyer and a client

between

a

academic discourse/lecture
the discourse
husband and a wife
the discourse
lawyers
the

between

between

discourse

between

a

two

a

doctor and his patient
Checar respostas

TEXT #1

LEXSEE 60 OHIO ST. 2D 126
THE STATE OF OHIO, APPELLEE, v. LOGAN, APPELLANT
No. 79-229
SUPREME COURT OF OHIO
60 Ohio St. 2d 126; 397 N.E.2d 1345; 1979 Ohio LEXIS 513; 14 Ohio Op.
3d 373
December 19, 1979, Decided
PRIOR HISTORY:
[***1] APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for
Summit County.
Thomas Alvin Logan was indicted by the Summit County Grand Jury
for rape (R.C. 2907.02[A][1]), kidnapping (R. C. 2905.01[A][4]),
carrying a concealed weapon (R.C.2923.12), and two counts of
corrupting another with drugs (R. C.2925.02[A][4]). He entered a plea
of not guilty to each count.
Logan was brought to trial before a jury on May 30, 1978. Evidence
adduced at trial tended to show that on April 18, 1978, the complainant,
Teresa R., left her residence in Akron at approximately 11:00 a.m. to
purchase cigarettes. As she was walking down the street she was
accosted by defendant, a casual acquaintance, at the entrance to an
alley.
Defendant offered Teresa some pills. When she refused to accept them,
7

defendant produced a knife, held it to her throat, and forced her into the
alley. (…)
TEXT #2

- Well, I've been suffering from fever for the past two days.
- Did you take any medicine?
- No, I didn't. I've got a cold too.
- Your body temperature is 102°F. You must take medicines for at least 3
days and must take rest.
- What about the diet?
- You should be on liquid diet. If the fever persists for more than three
days, come and see me. Here is your prescription.
TEXT #3

Today I would like to talk about transcription, from a personal
perspective. As a writer and a musician, transcription has been an
important tool in my professional life. I have had to transcribe tapes
of interviews that I've conducted, read transcripts of interviews that
people have done with me, and read my own writing aloud, which I'd
only meant to be read silently. I've also transcribed particular
instrumental solos and learned how to play other ones through
transcriptions.
Transcription
is
a
valuable
resource
for
documentation and dissemination, but the challenge is in capturing
the nuances of speech, or sound, in notation; often the differences
can make the transcription and the original speech or performance
almost mutually exclusive. (…)
TEXT #4

DAVID: "Anything I can eat?"
HELEN: "You don't even care what you've forgotten."
DAVID: "What?"
HELEN: "Look at you, David! You don't even care what you've forgotten
today."
DAVID: "All right, tell me what I've forgotten so we can get on with our
lives!"
HELEN: "You still don't get it. It doesn't matter that you missed
Danny's championship soccer game, it matters that you don't even give a
damn about it! If you had just taken five minutes today just to consider
what your son has been talking about constantly for the last three weeks"
DAVID: "So it was the soccer game. Finally, a straight answer!
TEXT #5

PETER: Mrs. Johnson spent nearly two months looking for just the
right attorney; but then, she would never really be satisfied with
anything less than the total invalidation of her husband Eric as a human
being. She complained I charged her too much, but I got her what she
paid for.
DANIEL: I think that a high hourly rate reflects a high skill level. And a
high skill level may actually save you a lot of money over a less
8

experienced attorney. Some clients make their decisions on hourly rate
alone.

FORUM
1950S EDUCATION ON WOMEN

Click here to watch the video entitled “THE TROUBLE WITH
WOMEN”. Then answer the following questions:

http://www.youtube.com/embed/j8ADfS8WQmw
A. Is it possible to identify discourses in the text related to typical
ways of describing male and female roles or social class roles? If possible,
identify, at least, one instance.
B. Would these discourses be similarly presented in comparable texts
in other cultural contexts with which you are familiar with? Explain, at
least, one of them.
C. Do you see instances of sexist discourse? Supply examples.
D. Would these instances be used nowadays in similar situational
contexts? Explain your point of view.

PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
WOMEN, KNOW YOUR LIMITS

According to Kress (1985), we can be made aware of the discourses
contained within a text by asking ourselves why the topic is being written
or talked about, how the topic is being written or talked about, and – most
importantly – what other ways of writing or talking about the topic there
are. The last is important in that, simply because discourses are related to
institutions the nature of which we rarely challenge, we may simply not
have thought of what other ways of writing, or talking, about a particular
topic are available to us.

9

Click here to watch a video entitled “Women, know your limits”.
Then answer the following questions in the form of a two or threeparagraph composition. Save it in your portfolio.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/XQzf8lHuYPo
1. Why is this topic being written about?
2. How is the topic being written about?
3. What other ways of writing about the topic are there?
4. What difference would it have made if the topic had been written
differently? Explain.

As we have already discussed, discourse – oral or written - has
many different manifestations in many different situations, from a
“hello/hi” dialogue to a lecture or from a simple pumpkin bread recipe
to an appeal to the Supreme Court.

According to Beaugrande (1981), there are some criteria that have to be
fulfilled to qualify either a spoken or written text as discourse. These include:
coherence,cohesion, intentionality, acceptability, informativeness,
situationality, intertextuality. In this course, we are going to focus on the
three highlighted ones. Let’s start then with COHERENCE.

The text supplied by the teacher has elements that link its parts
together, but does not allow it to be meaningful. If you ask yourself: “What is
the main idea of this text?” or “What message does it convey?”. The answer
will be, “None.” Coherent texts do make sense to the reader, but this one
makes no sense at all. It is senseless or incoherent. However, we can say that
each sentence is notionally linked to the one that precedes it, using both
lexical and grammatical means, which makes the text cohesive. Thus, we
agree that the text is cohesive (i.e. linked together) but not coherent (i.e.
meaningful). What is coherence then?
In very simple terms, we can define COHERENCE as the quality that
something has when it makes sense or is pleasing because all of its parts fit
together well and logically.

11

Let’s take a look at an example supplied by Enkvist and quoted by
Brown & Yule (1983: 197)
I bought a Ford. A car in which President Wilson
rode down the Champs Elysées was black. Black
English has been widely discussed. The discussions
between the presidents ended last week. A week has
seven days. Every day I feed my cat. Cats have four
legs. The cat is on the mat. Mat has three letters.
(ENKVIST, 1978:110)

To access the meaning of this text, you certainly tried to use the same
techniques you use when reading in your mother tongue. You must have
tried to make connections across the first few sentences and firmly believed
that the next sentence would provide the element(s) which would allow a
coherent interpretation of the whole text. However, you were not successful
in your attempt. Why was it then? Despite the Ford-car, black-Black,
President Wilson-the presidents, discussed-discussions, week-week, daysdays, my cat-cats-The cat, mat-Mat types of connections, which accounts
for cohesion (to be discussed in our next lesson), the text fails to deliver any
message to the reader. Being so, it’s impossible for any reader, even very
much experienced ones, to get any meaning from it for just one reason: it is
meaningless or the text is NOT COHERENT.

PRACTICE I
Read the text below to identify, at least, three (03) incoherent pieces
of information.
A BRITISH MAN HAS SHOT HIS OWN FINGER OFF IN AN
EFFORT TO GET RID OF A PAINFUL WART.
June 16 2011
DRIVEN mad by a small wart, a thirty-eight lady decided
01
02 to cut his finger off himself. Sean Murphy had a huge wart and
03 for 5 years had tried several creams but nothing could get rid of
04 it. So he decided to remove it with a hammer after drinking
several pints of beer.
05
06
Sean Murphy said: “The worst thing is that the wart has
08 gone. It was giving me a lot of joys. It was as big as my
09 thumbnail. I’d tried all sorts of things and it was almost
becoming imperceptible. I didn’t expect to lose my finger –
there was nothing left of it. But I’m happy because I didn’t like
my big toe very much.”
EXTRACTED
AND
ADAPTED
FROM:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/weird-news/2011/06/16/manshoots-off-his-own-finger-to-get-rid-of-growth-wart-an-idiot-8690823205185/ [2]
12

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

1. The title of the text informs us that a British MAN, not a woman,
shot HIS own finger off trying to get rid of an unwanted painful wart.
In its first paragraph, we find the reflexive pronoun HIMSELF (line
02), the character’s name, SEAN MURPHY (line 02), and the subject
pronoun HE (line 03), all indicatives that the character is a man, not a
woman. However, in lines 01 and 02, we come across the following
piece of incoherent information: … "a thirty-eight LADY decided to cut
his finger off himself". As the whole story revolves around Sean
Murphy, the word LADY has no reason to be included here making
reference to him.
2. According to the text, Sean Murphy spent 5 years trying TO GET
RID OF HIS PAINFUL WART (title), which, in fact, he did. AFTER
HAVING TRIED SEVERAL CREAMS WITHOUT ANY SUCCESS (lines 02
and 03), he chose TO SHOOT HIS WART OFF (title). However, his plan
backfired and NOTHING WAS LEFT OF HIS FINGER (lines 08 and 09).
Thus, we can conclude that, despite the tragedy of losing his finger,
THE BEST THING, and not the worst, was to find out that the wart was
gone too. Therefore, the sentences “the worst thing is that the wart has
gone (line 05)” and “It was giving me a lot of joys (lines 05 and 06)”
only contribute to make the text incoherent.
3. The title informs us that a British man SHOT HIS OWN FINGER
(title). TO SHOOT, in this case, means TO REMOVE OR DESTROY
THE WART BY FIRING A WEAPON. The verb to shoot requires the use
of a firing weapon, a revolver, for example. However, throughout the
OFF

text, we perceive that this piece of information is replaced by others
such as: Sean Murphy CUT HIS FINGER OFF (line 01), which requires
the use of a knife, for example or Sean Murphy REMOVED THE WART
WITH A HAMMER (line 03), which means that in fact he tried to
remove the inconvenient wart by hitting it. Being so, the pieces of
information supplied are contradictory, contributing to make the text
incoherent.
4. Another point of incoherence is the size of Sean Murphy’s wart.
In the beginning of the text, it is described as SMALL (line 01), then as
HUGE (line 02), later as being AS BIG AS [Sean’s] THUMBNAIL (line
06), and in the end of it, it is said to be ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLE
(lines 07 and 08). If the wart had become almost imperceptible, Sean
Murphy wouldn’t have come to the extreme of shooting his own finger
off.
5. The text is about a man who, unsatisfied with a big wart he had
on one of his fingers (title and lines 01), decided to shoot it off.
However, instead of getting rid of the wart only he also lost his finger.
Therefore, the sentence “But I’m happy because I didn’t like my BIG
TOE very much”. (line 09) has no reason to be included in the text due
to the fact that Sean Murphy lost HIS FINGER and not his BIG TOE.

13

PRACTICE II
Do you still remember the definition of COHERENCE?
With the definition above in mind, read the text A TELEGRAM (a
message that is sent by telegraph and then printed and delivered to
someone’s home or office.) and say whether it is coherent or not. Explain
how you got to this conclusion.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

COHERENT, though its ideas are not linked together. The text
conveys a message that can be understood by a reader:

Maybe it was not so easy to decide if A TELEGRAM is a coherent text
or not. Why did it happen? Larson (1987, p. 72) says that:

The determination of coherence is fundamentally na interpretation by [the]
reader. It is part of a transaction between text and reader – between the

reader’s world and the writer’s language.

What does it mean? It means that if the reader is not, for example,
linguistically prepared to interact with the text s/he will not understand it. In
this case, knowing the meaning of the word telegram is really important to
the understanding of the text. Those who are old enough to have experienced
wording a telegram to somebody will remember that it was a synonym of
catastrophe, calamity, or tragedy. Hardly ever, somebody would send a
telegram with a joyful or happy message. Telegrams should always be written
in a very economical way, being so, linking elements were the most sacrificed
14

ones. Perhaps, for these reasons, it was not so simple for you to classify the
text A TELEGRAM as COHERENT. In fact, it is coherent but its ideas are not
linked together (not cohesive).
If you read the telegram with attention, you will perceive that you can
tell the facts IN DETAILS though the text is not written in a cohesive way.
Let’s try together.

See? All this is understood from the very brief message Susan sent to
Mary; the telegram that lacked cohesion and that maybe sounded incoherent
to you.

Cohesion is one of the two qualities that give a spoken or
written text unity, the other being coherence, previously
discussed. Thus, a text must exhibit coherence and cohesion in
order to be considered an instance of the discourse.

H&H (1976, p. 4) state that the concept of cohesion is a semantic one; it
refers to relations of meaning that exist within teh text, and that define it as a
text.
Cohesion occurs where the INTERPRETATION of some element in the
discourse is dependent on that of another. The onde PRESUPPOSES the
other, in the sense that it cannot be effectively decoded execept by recourse
to it.

Let's take a look at the following example supplied by H&H (1976, p.
32):

Three blind mice, three blind mice.

See how they run! See how they run!

As you can see the interpretation of they is dependent on three blind
mice. they means not merely three blind mice but 'the same three blind
mice that we have just been talking about'.
But how do we achieve cohesion?
According to Halliday (1985, p. 288), there are five ways by which
cohesion is created in English: by reference, by substituion, ellipsis,
lexical organizations, and conjunction."

In this course we are going to study reference, lexical organization and
conjunction. And here we are going to cover only the first one of them –
reference. Let's start by defining it.
The example below:

17

Three blind mice, three blind mice.

See how they run! See how they run!

H&H (1976, p.32)

illustrates reference. The pronoun they (referent) makes reference to
what was previously stated: three blind mice (reference item).
There is a class of items in every language that only exists to express
reference; that is, "instead of being interpreted semantically in their own
right, they make reference to something else for their interpretation" (H&H,
1976, p. 31). Examples of types of reference are personal and demonstrative:
PERSONAL REFERENCE

DEMONSTRATIVE REFERENCE

Now we are going to discuss reference within a text. It could be an oral
or written text, but for our purposes, we decided to choose two written texts.
The first one is about a very interesting theme: sleepwalking. Do you know
what sleepwalking is? Read the first two paragraphs of the site

18

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleepwalking[1] just to get some basic
information about the subject matter.
Now that you know what sleepwalking is, read the first paragraph of
the text entitled The sleepwalker who froze to death. The paragraph is
transcribed below.

Source[2]
In the paragraph above there are four instances of reference (2 – 5)
with the use of the same item, the pronoun his – repeated four times. All the
instances of reference have the same referent, that is, they all refer to
Timothy Brueggeman, identified in the very beginning of the text. Let's
take a close look at one of these instances:

This is an example of anaphora because the referent his (2) points back
to Timothy Brueeggeman (1), the reference item previously introduced.
The items (3 – 5) in the paragraph above also point back to (1) Timothy
Brueggeman, establishing with it anaphoric relations (anaphora).
The relation established among referent and reference item constitutes a
semantic tie. Without these semantic ties, the above paragraph would sound
much more as a sequence of isolated sentences than as part of a text.
But textual relations may also go in the opposite direction. In this
case, we say the relations are cataphoric (cataphora). (click here for
examples of cataphora).
“As a general rule, cataphora is much less frequent than anaphora.”

PRACTICE I
Below you will find the last paragraph of The sleepwalker who froze to
death. Can you identify other existing relations – anaphoric and/or
cataphoric? What are they?

19

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

PRACTICE II
Read the first and last paragraphs of the text The sleepwalker who
froze to death to identify the referent of the word in red, this.
VERSÃO TEXTUAL DO FLASH

THE SLEEPWALKER WHO FROZE TO DEATH
In Jan 2009, Timothy Brueggeman, a 51-year-old electrician
from Wisconsin, sleepwalked out of his home in Hayward wearing
only his underwear and a fleece shirt. His body was found the next
morning about 190 yards from his rural home.
This wasn't Brueggeman's first dangerous sleepwalking
incident. Last summer, he drove his pickup truck into the side of his
own garage. Brueggeman's mother had advised him to stop taking
Ambien after the incident.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWER

This one is different from all the others, right? Yes, because this
time we have a case of demonstrative reference. THIS refers to the
2009 incident (i.e. Brueggeman took Ambien/sleeping pill,
sleepwalked wearing only his underwear and a fleece shirt, froze to
death) that caused his death. We believe that you had to read the
text one more time and draw conclusions about it. Almost playing
detective.

FURTHER READING
Click on the link http://www.oddee.com/item_96680.aspx[3] if you
want to know what really happened to Timothy Brueggeman and/or read
other texts about SLEEPWALKING.

LEXICAL COHESION
Definition:
Lexical cohesion is the cohesive effect achieved by selection of items
that are related in some way to those previously introduced. This may
take the form of word repetition or of synonymy, for example.
(HALLIDAY, 1985 , p. 310;
H&H,1976, p.274).

Below we discuss two major types of lexical cohesion: (a) reiteration
and (b) synonymy. In order to understand these notions, we are going to
make use of the text The sleepwalker who froze to death. one more time. This
time you will have access to its complete version.
Read the text focusing on the words in blue. What do they have in
common? What role do they play in this text?

Source [1]
The words in blue are all reference items, that is, they all refer to
some other item already introduced in the text, the referent (in red). As we
have already discussed, the seven reference items (2 – 8) are contributing to
the establishment of cohesion and coherence by pointing back to (1)
Timothy Brueggeman. Being so, they have a lot in common with the personal
and demonstrative references we studied before.
Now let`s take a look at two types of LEXICAL COHESION to better
understand what happens in the text above.

22

(a) reiteration is the repetition of a lexical item as in
and (7).

(3),

(6),

The second, third and fourth occurrences of BRUEGGEMAN point
back to the first establishing an anaphoric relation. According to H&H
(1976, p. 310), "in order for a lexical item to be considered repeated it need
not be in the same morphological shape." For example, DINING, DINER,
DINNER are considered to be one item repeated three times, though it's not
spelled exactly the same way. TIMOTHY BRUEGGEMAN (1) and
BRUEGGEMAN - (3), (6), and
item.
(b)

(7) - are considered to be the same

SYNONYMY includes synonyms, superordinate-subordinate

as
items, antonyms, for example. This concept is also known
superordinate-subordinate concept, whereas that which is at a higher level
of generality is known as superordinate and that which is at a lower level is
known as a subordinate.

Source

[2]

In the above diagram we see that

THEY

is

superordinate to

'creatures', which is in turn superordinate to 'birds', and which is finally
superordinate to 'blackbirds'. Any of these superordinates could be
used to refer to 'blackbirds'; each of them would be regarded as
synonymous to 'blackbirds'.
Now let's take the following example into consideration.
Four-&-twenty blackbirds, baked in a pie. When the pie
was opened, the birds began to sing. (Halliday, 1985 p. 310)

Halliday uses the superordinate 'bird' to refer to 'blackbirds' in a
synonymous relation.

23

It's interesting to note that, in the analysis of synonymy, Halliday
includes antonymy, where a cohesive semantic linkage is established
between items of opposing meanings.
In the teaching-learning environment, for example, it's very common
to see teachers making use of opposition to give explanations. When
explaining the meaning of 'black', they say "the opposite of white"; when
explaining 'tall', they say "the opposite of short". And in this sense, black
and

white/tall and

short are synonymous.

Let's analyze the instances of words synonymous with Timothy
Brueggeman in The sleepwalker who froze to death. Observe the diagram
below.

As we can see, Brueggeman's profession - 'electrician' - is used as a
synonym for him. Also, the words 'victim' and 'friend' are used as
synonymous with (1) Timothy Brueggeman. Being so, in this text,
Timothy Brueggeman = Bruggeman = electrician = victim = friend. It is
important to mention that all these reference items establish with the
referent anaphoric relations.

PRACTICE I
Can you find other existing relations, including reference –
anaphoric and/or cataphoric - within this same text: The sleepwalker who
froze to death? We are going to give you two referents and you prompt the
reference items. Ok?
,

(a) Ambien (line 07) –
,

(b)

Ed

Lesniak

(lines
.

24

,

.

10

-

11)

-

,

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

Good!!! You seem to have understood the concept. If you want to read
more about the items in PRACTICE I, click here (Visite a aula online para
realizar download deste arquivo.).

PRACTICE II
What would you say about the noun SLEEPWALKER in the title of the
text? What is its referent? Is this a case of anaphoric or cataphoric
relation? What do you think?

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWER

Great job!!! Readers can only identify who the sleepwalker is after they
read the first sentence of the text and connect the words SLEEPWALKER (a
person who sleepwalks), TIMOTHY BRUEGGEMAN and SLEEPWALKED.
This is another case of cataphora. The sleepwalker who froze to death, dying
of hypothermia, was (1) Timothy Brueggeman.

FURTHER READING
Click on the link http://www.oddee.com/item_96680.aspx [3] if you
want to read more about sleepwalking and on the link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRSTp3BJT3c [4] if you want to read
more about cohesion.

FORUM
"THE GIRL WHO SILENCED THE WORLD FOR 6 MINUTES”

In 1992, at age 12, Severn Cullis-Suzuki raised money with members
of ECO – the Environmental Children’s Organization, to attend the Earth
25

Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Along with group members Michelle Quigg,
Vanessa Suttil, and Morgan Geisler, Cullis-Suzuki presented
environmental issues from a youth perspective at the summit, where she
was applauded for a speech to the delegates. The video has since become a
viral hit, popularly known as "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 6
Minutes”.
Click on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ohjSVKXMu4
[5] to have access to the video. Then answer the following questions about
it.
1. Do you consider Cullis-Suzuki’s discourse coherent and cohesive?
Justify your answer by supplying evidences from the text.
2. Does Cullis-Suzuki’s discourse have any instance of reference?
Supply evidence and comment on it.
3. Does her discourse have any instance of lexical organization?
Supply evidence and comment on it.

You already know there are several ways sentences of a
paragraph, and the ideas they contain and convey, may be related to
each other so that the paragraphs are cohesive and coherent. Here we
are going to deal with a different type of cohesive relation: WORDS
AND EXPRESSIONS OF CONNECTION.
Words and expressions of connection (coordinating conjunctions,
sentence connectors and subordinating conjunctions) show
meaningful relationships between the components of discourse. With
the use of such words, the understanding of one idea accommodates
the interpretation of the other. They show, for example, how what
follows is connected to what has gone before.
Words and expressions of connections are different from the
other cohesive devices we have dealt with so far because they do not
simply constitute anaphoric or cataphoric relations. They are cohesive
because they express meanings which presuppose the presence of
other components in the discourse (cf. H&H, 1976, p. 226).

To better understand how this concept works, let’s take a look at the oral
piece of discourse below:

Source[1]
As you can see, FIRST, SOON AFTER, and THEN indicate relationships in
time (time sequencing). They chronologically organize the events being
reported.
Words and expressions of connection can be organized into four broad
categories, according to the relationship they express: addition, contrast,
cause and consequence and time sequencing.
WORDS AND EXPRESSIONS OF CONNECTION
ADDITION

27

CONTRAST

CAUSE

28

TIME SEQUENCING

(Adapted from: THEWLIS, 2007, pp. 185-186)
29

Source[2]
The concept of words and expressions of connection can be resultant of
explicitly or implicitly related ideas conveyed by sentences of a paragraph or
of part(s) of a text. Let’s see how it works. In order to make things easier, we
are going to start our analysis with something that is already familiar to you;
the text entitled The sleepwalker who froze to death . This time we are going
to concentrate on the second paragraph.
CLICK HERE

30

Source
Let’s analyze the following sentences from the second paragraph.
a) Ambien is the most-prescribed sleeping pill in the country and has
been linked to hundreds of cases of sleepwalking.
In this case, we have an additive type of relation. We are informed, by
the author, that Ambien is the most-prescribed sleeping pill in the United
States and, to this piece of information s/he adds another one, that Ambien
has been linked to hundreds of cases of sleepwalking.

It is important to note that parallel structuring makes repeating the
same words unnecessary. For this reason, the noun AMBIEN is omitted in
the second clause.
b) Sanofi-Aventis, which produces the drug, insists Ambien is safe
when taken as directed and not mixed with alcohol or other drugs. But a
friend of the victim, Ed Lesniak, admitted that his friend, who was plagued
with insomnia, sometimes drank when taking the sleep aid.
The idea conveyed by BUT is usually contrary to or different from what
was previously said or introduced. The laboratory Sanofi-Aventis declared
that Ambien is safe under the condition that it is taken as instructed and is
not mixed with alcohol or other drug. CONTRARY TO INSTRUCTIONS,
Timothy Brueggeman sometimes drank when taking the sleeping pill, Ed
Lesniak, a friend of his admitted.

31

Source[3]
After reading a text, we unconsciously make a mental summary of it
establishing all the connections possible – if we really understood the text, of
course. It is exactly this mental summary that allows us to answer a varied
number of questions about implicitly conveyed information, such as

Source[4]
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

(a) He certainly took the drug BEFORE going to bed.
(b) The sleeping drug has been linked to hundreds of cases of
sleepwalking. CONSEQUENTLY / FOR THIS REASON / ON ACCOUNT
OF THIS it is considered number one factor of Brueggeman´s death.
(c) During wintertime, temperatures get severely cold, dropping to
something around - 16° F (-26° C). Brueggeman sleepwalked out of his
home wearing only his underwear and a fleece shirt. BECAUSE OF
THIS, he died of hypothermia.

In (A), the conjunction BEFORE indicates that the fact – to take the drug
- happened at/during a time earlier than going to bed, time sequencing. In
(B), CONSEQUENTLY/FOR THIS REASON/ON ACCOUNT OF THIS indicates
the reason why the drug is considered number one factor of Brueggeman’s
death – causal relation. And in (C), the idea conveyed by BECAUSE OF THIS
is also a causal relation - the reasons for Timothy Brueggeman’s death.
Let’s check if everything is understood by doing the exercises below.

32

PRACTICE
Click on the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ohjSVKXMu4
[5] to watch the video "The Girl Who Silenced the World for 6 Minutes”
one more time. Then read the sentences extracted from Severn CullisSuzuki’s speech and finally match them according to their meaning.
SENTENCES
1. Losing my future is not like losing an election or a few points on the
stock market.
2. I am afraid to breathe the air because I don't know what chemicals
are in it.
3. In my life, I have dreamt of seeing the great herds of wild animals,
jungles and rainforests full of birds and butterflies, but now I wonder if
they will even exist for my children to see.
4. Here, you may be delegates of your governments, business people,
organisers, reporters or politicians - but really you are mothers and
fathers, brothers and sister, aunts and uncles - and all of you are
somebody's child.
5. I'm only a child yet I know we are all in this together and should act
as one single world towards one single goal.
6. In my anger, I am not blind, and in my fear, I am not afraid to tell
the world how I feel.
7. In my country, we make so much waste, we buy and throw away,
buy and throw away, and yet northern countries will not share with the
needy. Even when we have more than enough, we are afraid to lose some
of our wealth, afraid to share.
MEANING
to indicate a condition
to link a number of alternatives
to indicate a relationship in time
to indicate addition of more information
to indicate that what follows is a result of what precedes
to introduce a comment which is rather surprising after the
previous one made
to introduce a statement that contradicts or makes a contrast with
what has just been said
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWER

MEANING
33

( 3 ) to indicate a condition
( 1 ) to link a number of alternatives
( 7 ) to indicate a relationship in time
( 6 ) to indicate addition of more information
( 2 ) to indicate that what follows is the cause or reason of what
precedes
( 5 ) to introduce a comment which is rather surprising after the
previous one made
( 4 ) to introduce a statement that contradicts or makes a contrast
with what has just been said

FURTHER READING
Click

on

the

links

http://www.sk.com.br/sk-conn.html[6]

andhttp://www.myenglishteacher.net/connectorsandotheraddinfowords.html
[7] to learn more about words and expressions of connection.
Click
here
http://www.sfsf.com.au/econews/econews_story_severin_suziki.htm[8]
if you want to have access to the transcription of Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s
speech.

PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
SEVERN CULLIS-SUZUKI

Severn Cullis-Suzuki is not a teenager anymore. She has become an
environmental activist, speaker, television host and author. She has
spoken around the world about environmental issues, urging listeners to
define their values, act with the future in mind, and take individual
responsibility.

Source[9]
Click on the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki
[10] to get to know a little about Cullis-Suzuki now. Then write a two- to
three-paragraph composition on her current life and activities. Make use
of, at least, 05 different words and expressions of connection. Care for
coherence and cohesion. Save it in your portfolio.

MULTIMEDIA
Click here: [1] and watch Madonna performing the ballad Live To
Tell during her 2006 Confession Tour.
Now read the following texts:
TEXT A

The Church of England has criticised Madonna's
appearance on a cross to kick off her latest tour in Los Angeles.
"Why would someone with so much talent seem to feel the need to
promote herself by offending so many people?" said the Church in a
statement.
Madonna performed the ballad Live to Tell while suspended from a
giant mirrored cross on the opening night.
Source

[2]

TEXT B

NBC: Debating Madonna Crucifix Scene
(…) During her performance of the
song "Live to Tell," Madonna is shown on
a mirrored cross wearing a crown of
thorns. That angered some religious
leaders, particularly before her concert in
Rome, and they labeled it a bad-taste
publicity stunt. (…)
Madonna

[3]

Source

[4]

PRACTICE
COMPARING TEXTS AND VIDEO

Answer the following questions.
a. Do you think you can identify what the texts and the video have in
common?

b. What two icons of Christianity are used by Madonna in her
performance?

36

c. Why did people criticize Madonna’s number in her Confession
Tour? (Please, DO concentrate on the text. Do not use this Unit to
discuss religious beliefs. This is not the purpose of the lesson.)

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

a) They all make reference to the crucifixion of Jesus.
b) The cross and the crown of thorns.

c) Because they believed she was disrespectful and provocative to
some religions. Because she used religious symbols to promote herself
and make money.

In order to understand the two texts above, we must have knowledge of

a previous text – Madonna’s performance of the ballad Live to Tell during
her 2006 tour. And in order to understand Madonna’s text, we must have
knowledge of a text that is older in time – the Bible.

THE BIBLE
Matthew 27:32-56 - the crucifixion of Jesus Christ
Matthew 25: 35 - Whatever you did for one of the least of my brothers
you did it to me

THE CONCERT
Madonna’s LIVE TO TELL number

THE NEWS ARTICLES
The Church of England has criticised Madonna's appearance on a
cross to kick off her latest tour in Los Angeles & Debating Madonna
Crucifix Scene
As you can see texts have a history and may fit into a sequence of other
texts. The Church of England has criticised Madonna's appearance
on a cross to kick off her latest tour in Los Angeles. and NBC:
Debating Madonna Crucifix Scene can be interpreted as two of a series
of texts on the topic to appear in the British press in 2006, which only gain
meaning through their referencing or evocation to the previous text(s).
According to Wallace (1992, 47), “all texts contain traces of other texts,
and frequently they cannot be readily interpreted – or at least fully
appreciated – without reference to other texts.” But what do we call this
dependence?
37

"The way in which texts gain meaning through their
referencing or evocation to other texts is called
INTERTEXTUALITY."

You may be asking yourself why Madonna chose to use Christian icons
in her performance of Live to Tell during her 2006 tour. But before reading
about her reasons, let’s take a look at the description of her number.
“Live to tell
Description
Madonna occupies the position of Christ on her theatrical cross. In the
background there are pictures of African children, victims of AIDS.
Toward the end of her "Live to Tell" number, Madonna steps down from
the cross and assumes a position of prayer, on her knees. She removes the
crown of thorns and at this point on the screen above, these words appear:
"Whatever you did to one of the least of my brothers, you did for me."
Adapted from: http://www.godweb.org/madonnacruci.htm [5] “
But what were Madonna’s reasons?
The singer said the crucifixion scene was meant to send a message of
unity that Jesus would appreciate.
"It is my plea to the audience to encourage mankind to help one
another and to see the world as a unified whole. I believe in my heart that
if Jesus were alive today he would be doing the same thing."
"I wanted to bring attention to the millions of children in Africa who
are dying every day or are living without care, without medicine and
without hope. I am asking people to open their hearts and minds to get
involved in whatever way they can."
(adapted
from
http://www.aceshowbiz.com/news/view/00005351.html [6]

-

Analyzing the text above, you can see it makes reference to other texts.
Its title, Madonna Defends Her Stage Show's Mock Crucifixion Scene, evokes
previous texts, oral and written, which criticized her concert accusing it of
blasphemy and/or heresy. Here we can cite The Church of England has
criticised Madonna's appearance on a cross to kick off her latest
tour in Los Angeles. and NBC: Debating Madonna Crucifix Scene.
In the first paragraph of the text, the author makes reference to the
crucifixion scene one more time, not the one performed by Jesus, but the one
performed by Madonna which evokes the religious one.
From all that was said above, we can conclude that Madonna’s number
and the crucifixion of Jesus are intertextual. In her concert, Madonna makes
38

reference to the religious scene because she wants to convey a very clear
message: if we ignore our brothers in need, if we don’t reach out to help the
millions of children in Africa, for example, who are dying without care,
medicine and hope, we are going to be repeating the crucifixion of Jesus.
As you can see, each text exists in relation to others. They are
constructed more by their intertextuality than by their authors. Being so, we
can say that any text is a new issue of past citations.
It’s important to mention here that texts that are alluded to
by other texts are referred to as intertexts (Koch, 2004:145).

As you already know, intertextuality is the way in which a text gains
meaning through its referencing or evocation to another text or even others.
It may be observed in literature, sculpture, painting, music, film, advertising,
cartoons - in all forms of human expression. Let’s take a look at some
examples.

MULTIMEDIA
Click here[1]: to have access to examples of intertextuality in painting,
music, and film.
Texts do not appear in isolation but in relation to another and/or others
that precede them. The explicit or implicit mention of another's words
determines the existing type of intertextuality.
“Explicit intertextuality is observed when, in a text, oral or written, its
author makes reference to the source of the intertext (the text alluded to by
other texts. Explicit intertextuality is very commonly perceptible in
citations, summaries, translations, lists of references of an academic
article, etc.
It is also observ in oral interactions when, for example, one speaker
repeats or paraphrases what the other has just said in order to continue a
dialogue or to contradict an idea presented to him.”
Let’s take a look at some examples of explicit intertextuality. Maybe we
should start with our lessons in this course. You may have probably noted
that all the texts we have studied so far can only gain meaning through their
references to the texts written by Catherine Wallace, Ingedore Kock, M.A.K.
Halliday, Ruqaiya Hasan, Henry G. Widdowson and others. Every time we
quote these authors, we give them credit for their words. Being so, explicit
reference to them is made.
Source[2]

Now take a look at the cover of a Brazilian crossword puzzle magazine.
Do you recognize the drawing on it? Have you seen it before? If you have,
you will certainly identify the source of the intertext.

Source: ABAPORU, Tarsila do Amaral 1928

40

The drawing on the cover of the magazine is an explicit allusion to
Abaporu (1928) by Tarsila do Amaral. Today it is the most valued Brazilian
screen (below) in the world, reaching the value of $1.5 million. The TupiGuarani word “abaporu” means "the man that eats".

CURIOSITY
Now click here[3]: You will be surprised to discover that Abaporu has
an intertext, that is, a text produced before 1928. To be more specific, a
text produced in 1906 by Auguste Rodin.
VERSÃO TEXTUAL DO FLASH

How about the following picture? Can you identify the source of
the intertext?
If you have ever been introduced to Leonardo da Vinci and his
Gioconda, you will certainly say the source of the intertext of the
picture is the Mona Lisa. There are explicit and obvious evidences that
lead us to this conclusion.

All texts contain traces of preceding texts, and frequently they cannot be
readily interpreted – or at least fully appreciated – without reference to
them. It is helpful to know something about the circumstances in which a
text was produced and how it relates to other texts.
Now let’s concentrate on implicit intertextuality. How can it be defined?

Implicit intertextuality is the reference to texts without indicating its source,
such as jokes in which previous discourses are ironically referred to or
criticized, relying only on the interlocutor’s familiarity with them (Koch,
2004:145).

Normally, when the writer/speaker makes use of implicit intertextuality,
he expects his reader/listener to be able to recognize the presence of the
intertext by activating its source in his discursive memory. In order to find
meaning under this circumstance, the reader/listener has to make use of
cognitive strategies that will enable him to identify the intertext. If the
identification does not happen, the reader/listener won’t be able to
understand the underlying meaning conveyed by the text.
Let’s take a look at the example below.
CLICK HERE

In order to understand the complete meaning conveyed by the text, we
have to take into consideration the following:
(a) it is a commercial of a radio station (Kiss 102.1 FM).
(b) it uses the prayer “Our Father” (Pai Nosso) with the purpose to
promote itself.

According to Koch and Elias (2006, p. 93), in this kind of textual
production, marked by implicit intertextuality, the author does not supply
the source because he presupposes that it is part of the reader’s background
knowledge and, being so, it is not necessary. Thus, it is for the reader to know
that the commercial is using the prayer Our Father.

FORUM
ABAPORU AND THE THINKER

Click here[4]: to watch the video about Abaporu and its intertext,
The Thinker.
1. How does Abaporu, by Tarsila do Amaral relate to The Thinker, by
Rodin?
2.What message does each one of them convey?
3.What do they have in common?
4.How do they differ?

PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
MOUSE TRAP SURVIVOR

42

You will watch a Nolan cheddar cheese commercial. Don’t panic. You
will be surprised at its outcome. Watch it until the end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OXONZyAgXA&feature=related
[5]
Then check the other sites below. How do they relate to the first one?
Identify common elements and make comments.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HP7EGyMLy8[6]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvm2bpFQMsg[7]
Write your answers in the form of a paragraph (5 – 7 sentences). Save
it in your portfolio.

MULTIMEDIA
If you want to see Nat King Cole singing Mona Lisa, click here[8].
If you want to see Britney Spear singing Mona Lisa, click here[9].

How to pronounce Parody:
Here we are going to concentrate on a very specific type of
intertextuality: parody. Before defining what it is, let’s take a look at the
illustration below. What do you see? Would you buy a product advertised in

such a way? Why (not)?

PASS THE MOUSE OVER THE HIGHLIGHTED TEXT

Source [2]
The advertisement imitates the style of Absolut Vodka ads for comic
effects, but some people would say it, in fact, explicitly ridicules the product
advertised. But before moving ahead, let’s take a look at one of the original
ads by Absolut Vodka.

The first illustration introduced above is a parody of one of the Absolut
Vodka ads and the second is its source intertext. But the parody has another
intertext, explicitly evoked: Macbeth, by William Shakespeare – the greatest
English dramatist and poet (1564 – 1616).

44

What is a parody then? We can define it as an example of a text that
intentionally imitates or copies the characteristic style of an author or a work
for comic effect. It imitates another work of art to make light or to make fun
of it in some way. Many people see it as a form of ridicule, while others
consider it the highest form of praise.
As you have probably observed, parodies surround us from every angle.
Examples of parody which are widely used are seen in literature, theater,
film, music, painting, and books.

MULTIMEDIA
Click on the links below to see examples of parody related to the world
of arts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-KOloPHkDY [3]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHZy8y-3Kmc&feature=related
[4]
You certainly observed that without the help of the original pieces of
art, you wouldn’t have understood the comic effect of the parodies above.
That is why a parody works only on people who know the original, and
they have to know it intimately enough to appreciate the imitation. Part of
the enjoyment people take in parody is the enjoyment of feeling
intelligent. Not everyone gets the joke and if they don't get the joke, it’s
neither fun nor funny.
Some of the most famous parodies that are easily recognizable come
from the contemporary film genre.

PRACTICE
Have you ever seen Vampires Suck (2010)? Watch its trailer and try
to identify as many instances of intertextuality as possible.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

There are, at least, 05 instances of intertextuality in the trailer.
They are
(a) Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll (book)
45

Another medium that has served as a motivation for parody is music. In
the 1980s, for example, Weird Al Yankovic made a career out of his parodies
of American popular music.

MULTIMEDIA
Click on the link below to see one of his parodies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcJjMnHoIBI [7]
Click here to compare to the source intertext.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRdxUFDoQe0 [8]
Now let’s take a quick look at a parody of a real commercial. You have to
agree that sometimes, a parody of an ad is more interesting and more
successful than the source intertext that gave origin to it.
On the site http://www.businesspundit.com/10-best-parodies-of-realcommercials/ [9], you will have access to 10 Best Parodies of Real
Commercials. We chose only one parody and its source intertext to focus on,
but you can check all the other nine if you want to.
REAL COMMERCIAL - DOVE EVOLUTION

46

PARODY - DOVE EVOLUTION

You have probably observed that the original makes it clear how much
makeup and Photoshop goes into making a model look beautiful while the
parody explores how to turn a guy into a massive slob. ((= a lazy, untidy and
often rude person))
Well, do you still remember a parody is an example of a text that
intentionally imitates or copies the characteristic style of an author or a work
for comic effect? Ok. But it doesn’t always have to aim at ridiculing the
source intertext. It may aim at making the features or qualities of the original
more noticeable in a way that is humorous. In this case, it is a form of praise.
To better understand what we are referring to, click here [10] to have access
to some oil paintings by Mauricio de Souza that parody well-known works of
the great masters with the Monica’s Gang characters as the subjects.

This Unit deals with the concept of GENRE and some of its various
forms of manifestations.

Have you ever heard about GENRE? What do you know about it? Do
you know how to define it? Let’s take a look at some concepts related to this
subject matter.

According to Marcuschi (2003), human communication (oral and
written forms) is only possible by means of a genre and of a text, discourse
manifestation. To this, Koch (2006, p. 101) adds that the assignment of a
genre label to a text is an activity routinely performed by all of us.

49

As you have probably noticed, all the words typed in bold make
reference to a certain type of genre. We bet you have used some or all of the
above quotations many times.
Let’s check your ability to informally identify genres. You will get
surprised with the results.

PRACTICE 1
Identify the genre for each of the following text. Match the text (1 – 6)
with its genre type. Not all boxes are to be filled.
TEXT 1

Any group of people asked to assign a genre lable to each of the above
text would come up with the same set of answers. There is no doubt Text 1 is
a shopping list. It is unquestionable Text 2 is a cartoon. We would
certainly agree Text 3 is an e-mail, Text 4 is a blog, Text 5 is a friendly
letter, and Text 6 is a joke. But why would we all agree on this issue? How
can we explain this consensus?

To Wallace (1992, p. 31), we are able to assign a genre label to a text because we
are aided by our experience of ways in which overall communicative function is
conventionally conveyed through the use of formal and semantic features in
different kinds of texts.

52

from:

In other words, we have schemas for all the genres and typical
discourses we have already interacted with. But what are schemas, or
schemata as they are sometimes called?
Widdowson (1983, p.34) defines schemas as ‘cognitive constructs which
allow for the organization of information in long-term memory’. Cook (1989,
p. 69) explains that ‘the mind, stimulated by key words or phrases in the text
or by context, activates a knowledge schema’. And it is this activation that
allows us to relate incoming information (i.e. information from the outside
world) to already known information (i.e. information already stored in
memory).
Thus, schemas allow us to organize knowledge economically and to
predict the continuation of both spoken and written discourse. Being so, as
Mehler, Sharoff & Santini (2011) say “genres reduce the cognitive load by
triggering (causing to happen or exist) expectations through a number of
[regularities or] conventions.” These conventions engage predictions and
predictions help us identify the communicative purpose and the context
implied in a text. In this respect, according to these authors, genre can be
defined as

An implicit way of providing background information and suggesting the
cognitive requirements needed to understand a text.

According to Koch (2004), we have developed some kind of competence,
which she calls metageneric, that enables us to understand and produce
textual genres. This competence makes it possible for us, listeners and
readers/speakers and writers, to identify and classify texts the way we did in
Practice I.
Besides our metageneric competence, other factors help us distinguish
one genre from another: organizational pattern of a text and its
communicative purpose. Let’s take a look at these two factors more closely.
Below you will find two cartoons.
TEXT 1

53

John Doe’s knowledge of what a resumé (written document that lists
your work experience, skills, and educational background. It is used as a
marketing tool for job seekers.) is, how it is structured ( NAME (in all
caps and bold), local address, telephone, fax and email included at the top;
permanent and current address information, educational background in
reverse chronological order, experience also in reverse chronological order,
etc.) (organizational pattern) and the purpose (To provide a summary of
one's skills, abilities and accomplishments. It is one's quick advertisement
of who s/he is. Since one's resumé is a primary tool in her/his job search, it
needs to be carefully written and critiqued.) it serves allowed her not only
to classify it, but also to produce it. In the cartoon above, we see her being
interviewed for a job position she is not going to get because she was very
much creative producing a

resumé that is all lies.

TEXT 2

The text introduced by the cartoon is of a different genre:
classified ads [7] (also called classifieds or classified
advertisement). A classified ad can be defined as a short ad in a newspaper
or magazine (usually in small print and without illustration) that is
arranged according to specific categories or classifications. The three major
headings are Employment, Real Estate, and Automotive, although
there are many additional categories such as Business Opportunities,
Lost and Found, Pets, Personals, and Legal Notices.
In this cartoon the beggar is holding a sign that says, ‘jobless,
hungry, help’. As he is declaring he is jobless, in need of help, the passer-by
decides not to donate money but the classified section of a newspaper.

54

With the classified ads the beggar can look for a job and then solve all
his problems, including hunger.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, a man’s desperate cries rang out down
the halls of the Scarborough highrise where Jake Terveld has lived for
the past five years.
“He was screaming and yelling and crying. He was banging on the
doors and banging on the walls,” Terveld said. “He was yelling, ‘My
daughter.’”
Terveld called 911, then followed the distraught man into the
apartment beside his own on the sixth floor.
He saw a woman lying on the bed, “like a statue.” He didn’t see any
blood, but it was clear she was dead. (…)
TEXT EXTRACT 2

Three tired and hungry monsters went to sleep with a bag of
cookies. One monster woke up and ate 1/3 of the cookies, then went back
to sleep. Later a second monster woke up and ate 1/3 of the remaining
cookies, then went back to sleep. Finally, the third monster woke up and
ate 1/3 of the remaining cookies. When she was ﬁnished there were 8
cookies left. How many cookies were in the bag originally?
TEXT EXTRACT 3

Cranium is one of the most interactive and entertaining party games
available. Teams of two or more battle it out to see who knows the most
about pop culture or who can sculpt the answers to questions out of a
mound of putty.
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Instructions
Things You'll Need: Cranium board game
1. Choose teams and choose a color for your team. In the event that
teams are uneven, you can agree to leave them as they are, or you could
appoint one person to the role of sole writer/sculptor/drawer. This
makes it fair for everyone.
(…)
6. Roll the dice and move again whenever you answer a question

55

correctly.
7. Continue play until one team reaches the final square, in which
the question asked is an all-play. If the team in the final space answers it
correctly, they win! If another team answers correctly, they keep the
game alive and are allowed to answer another question from the space
they're on.
TEXT EXTRACT 4

Class of 2009! First I’d like you to get up, wave and cheer your
supportive family and friends! Show your love!
It is a great honor for me to be here today.
Now wait a second. I know: that’s such a cliché. You’re thinking:
every graduation speaker says that – It’s a great honor. But, in my case,
it really is so deeply true – being here is more special and more personal
for me than most of you know. I’d like to tell you why.
(…)
TEXT EXTRACT 5

Hi Jenny, my name is Cathy and I’m calling from Technoglobics, we
are a computer repair business located in your local area of Crows Nest.
The reason for my call today Jenny is that a friend of yours, Marcia,
recently had us repair her desktop and she kindly passed on your details.
Can I ask Jenny, how many PC’s do you have at home? And how are
they working out for you in terms of speed and storage? How have you
found your current PC repairer to be?
Jenny, we specialize in repairs to home PC’s and we’re known
widely in the area for the quality and efficiency of our work. (…)
Jenny, we offer a low cost alternative for PC repairs. We are able to
do that because we are a word of mouth company who keeps our
advertising costs down.
(…)
Thank you for your time today Jenny and we really do appreciate
you choosing us.
TEXT EXTRACT/GENRE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

56

TEXT EXTRACT 1
http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1029511--woman-found-deadhusband-charged[8]
GENRE – NEWS REPORT
Comments: Characteristically of this genre, an indefinite article
introduces new information with the opening noun phrase ‘a man’s
desperate cries’.
Shortly after 5 p.m. Friday, A MAN’S DESPERATE CRIES rang out
down the halls of the Scarborough highrise where Jake Terveld has
lived for the past five years.
TEXT EXTRACT 2
https://www.msu.edu/~crespo/ESMPosing.pdf?q=good-problemsteaching-mathematical-writing
GENRE – MATH PROBLEM
Comments: The excerpt describes a situation, introduces a problem,
and then requires a solution to the problem by asking a question. In
addition, numbers are used.
TEXT EXTRACT 3
http://www.ehow.com/how_2042391_play-cranium.html[9]
GENRE – GAME RULES: HOW TO PLAY CRANIUM
Comments: The excerpt presents the description of the game,
number of players organized in teams, degree of difficulty, and then
the instructions to the game: seven steps.
TEXT EXTRACT 4
http://celestinechua.com/blog/graduation-speeches/[10],
http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/annc/20090502-pagecommencement.html[11]
GENRE – GRADUATION SPEECH
Comments: Characteristically of this genre, a salutation to the class
followed by the year: ‘Class of 2009!’ Use of clichés, ‘It is a great
honor for me to be here today.’ Also the mentioning of a ‘graduation
speaker.
TEXT EXTRACT 5
http://www.top-telemarketing-tips.com/telemarketing-scriptsample/[12]
GENRE – TELEMARKETING CALL
Comments: The excerpt brings part of a transcript used by a
telemarketer to involve and convince his client to accept his services.
It has an opening statement with the customer’s name (JENNY),
name
(CATHY),
the
business
name
telemarketer’s
(TECHNOGLOBICS) and what the telemarketer does (COMPUTER
REPAIR BUSINESS),

why he is calling (THE REASON FOR MY CALL
TODAY JENNY IS THAT A FRIEND OF YOURS, MARCIA, RECENTLY
HAD US REPAIR HER DESKTOP AND SHE KINDLY PASSED ON
YOUR DETAILS.),

a mention of his prior contact (MARCIA). It also

57

has a section in which the telemarketer tries to identify a need
(CAN I ASK JENNY, HOW MANY PC’S DO YOU HAVE AT HOME?
AND HOW ARE THEY WORKING OUT FOR YOU IN TERMS OF
SPEED AND STORAGE? HOW HAVE YOU FOUND YOUR CURRENT
PC REPAIRER TO BE?) …

According to Fowler (1989, p. 215), ‘readers learn genres
gradually, usually through unconsciously familiarization.’ Let’s take a
look at some genres you are familiar with and study some of their most
common characteristics.

MULTIMEDIA
Click here to access film genre introduction:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=r620iOdP3pA&feature=player_embedded [1]
http://youtu.be/r620iOdP3pA
What makes critics label a film under the heading of western, for
example? Answer: The film's characteristics. Let's take a look at three of
these characteristics. Click the buttons below.
CASTING

Rastros de Ódio[2]

We will see that actors, for example, will play very similar characters
from film to film within the same genre category. They may have different
names, different mannerisms, but they are relatively similar to each other.
In westerns, we will see that we are always going to have the same sort
of bartender, the same sort of sheriff, the same sort of bad guy, the same
sort of good guy in these films.
THEMES

Themes are basically the same in films that belong to the same genre
category. As to westerns, we are always going to find the following themes:
the conquest of the wilderness and the subordination of nature in the name
of civilization, the confiscation of the territorial rights of the original
inhabitants of the frontier, conflict between natives and settlers/U.S.
Cavalry or between cattle ranchers and farmers, etc.
CODES

Westerns usually have certain codes: for example, a hero wears a white

59

hat, while the villain wears a black hat; when more than one cowboy
faces the other with no one in between them, there will be a shootout;
ranchers and mountain men don't talk to people and live alone, etc.
The western genre itself has subgenres, such as classical westerns (The
Great Train Robbery), Science fiction Western (Cowboys & Aliens), Space
Western (Bravestarr).
The Great Train Robbery[3]
Science fiction Western[4]
Cowboys & Aliens[5]
Space Western[6]
Bravestarr[7]

2.2 GENRE 2: FILM REVIEW
Definition: the analysis and evaluation of films, individually
and collectively

Let’s talk a little bit about the film CONAN, THE BARBARIAN. Have
you ever seen the film? How did you like it? How did you like Momoa’s
performance as Conan? Click here[8] to see the movie trailer.

60

Source[9]
Let’s take a look at two film reviews. What do the film critics think about
CONAN, THE BARBARIAN?
CRITIC 1

The Boston Globe released a film review by Ty Burr on August 18,
2011. Let’s see what Ty Burr thinks about the film.

Aug 18, 2011

Ty Burr (film critic)
Source [10]
MORE INFORMATION:

e-mail tburr@globe.com
Phone 617-929-3034
More

biography [11]

Archive

all stories by this author [12]

Twitter

@tyburr [13],

Blog

@globemovies [14]

movie nation [15]

CRITIC 2

Now let’s discover what Roger Ebert, from The Chicago Sun-Times,
thinks about the same film.
August 17, 2011

61

A clash of witless civilizations

"Conan the Barbarian" involves a clash of
civilizations whose vocabularies are limited to
screams, oaths, grunts, howls, ejaculations,
exclamations, vulgarities, screeches, wails, bellows,
yelps and woofs. I'd love to get my hands on the
paycheck for subtitling this movie.

Roger Ebert
Source [16]

PRACTICE
How do Ty Burr and Roger Ebert react to Conan, the Barbarian? Mark
(X) the correct answers.
a.
movie.

Only Roger Ebert reacted positively after having watched the

b.
Both critics left the movie theater with the feeling that the
movie industry had discovered another Arnold Schwarzenegger.
c.

Ty Burr and Roger Ebert didn’t like the film at all.

d.
Ty Burr was very much economical in his comments about
the movie – as it seems there was nothing to say.
e.

Roger Ebert was too severe in his critique.

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

a. ( ) Only Roger Ebert reacted positively after having watched
the movie.
b. ( ) Both critics left the movie theater with the feeling that
the movie industry had discovered another Arnold Schwarzenegger.
c. ( X ) Ty Burr and Roger Ebert didn’t like the film at all.
d. ( X ) Ty Burr was very much economical in his comments
about the movie – as it seems there was nothing to say.
e. ( X ) Roger Ebert was too severe in his critique.

PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
FILM REVIEW

Write a one-paragraph review about CONAN, THE BARBARIAN
(if you have seen it) or about any other film you feel comfortable writing
about. Save it in your portfolio.

FORUM
ABOUT GENRE

62

1. What genre is suggested by the discourse of the following text?
Explain how you got to this conclusion.
“ONCE UPON A TIME THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL WHO, AFTER THE
DEATH OF HER PARENTS, WENT TO LIVE NEAR A GREAT WOODS WITH
HER OLD UNCLE AND HIS TWO GRANDSONS. THEY WERE RATHER
STUPID, BUT THEY TREATED HER VERY WELL, ASIDE FROM THINKING
GIRLS WERE NO GOOD FOR ANYTHING USEFUL.
ONE DAY THE BOYS SET OUT TOGETHER IN SEARCH OF
ADVENTURE, AND WERE NOT HEARD FROM FOR A LONG TIME; AND
HER UNCLE BECAME VERY SAD. SO THE GIRL, WHOSE NAME WAS

BELINDA, SAID, "I WILL GO AND LOOK FOR THEM.”
ADAPTED FROM: LAKE, Rosemary. The silent castle.
http://www.rosemarylake.com/ft-queenbee.html.[17]visited on July 31,
2011.
2. Describe the characteristics of the type of genre identified in 1.
(above). How does the excerpt above break your expectations? Are there
any key words or phrases in it that deceive your knowledge schema?
3. It is important to mention that genres frequently evolve. And they
evolve because they migrate from one medium to another (i.e. ‘genre
transmutation’ – Bakhtin, 1997).

Genres and the relationship between them change over time. The
conventions of each genre shift, new genres and subgenres emerge and
others are ‘discontinued’ – though certain genres seem particularly longlasting.
Can you give another example or other examples of
a. genre transmutation?
b. discontinued genre?
c. long-lasting genre?

Here we are still working on the genres you are familiar with and
studying some of their most common characteristics.

3.1 GENRE 3: EDITORIAL CARTOONS
Definition: An editorial cartoon, also known as a political cartoon, is
an illustration or comic strip containing a political or social message that
usually relates to current events or personalities. They typically combine
artistic skill, hyperbole and biting humor in order to question authority
and draw attention to corruption and other social ills. They can be found
on the editorial page of most newspapers, but recently some editorial
cartoonists have found large audiences on the Internet.
Source[1]
Let’s take a look at the editorial cartoon below.

Source[2]
In November 2008, Florida voters banned same-sex marriage and civil
unions in an open demonstration they did not accept gay marriage. However,
their convention and visitors bureau began advertising for newly married gay
and lesbian couples to honeymoon in South Florida.
The editorial cartoon above deals with this real and up-to-date event,
showing that Florida is unsympathetic with gay couples but it has no
scruples about welcoming their money into the state economy. We don’t
recognize your wedding, but we DO recognize your Amex,
Mastercard and Visa means the same as we don’t recognize your
wedding, but we DO recognize your money.
WE

still wants gay honeymoon money, by Kyle Munzenrieder.
An editorial cartoon is composed of three or four parts: (1) scene, (2)
characters, (3) bubble, and/or (4) caption, optional.
We can describe the editorial cartoon above as below:
VERSÃO TEXTUAL DO FLASH

(1) Scene: a gay couple arrives at a hotel in Florida and is received by
the receptionist.
(2) Characters: the gay couple (representing newly married gay and
lesbian couples to honeymoon in Florida) and the receptionist
(representing Florida convention and visitors bureau)
(3) Bubble: We don't recognize your marriage but we do recognize
Amex, Mastercard and Visa!
(4) Caption: a title or explanation for a picture or illustration. Flórida
goes after the lucrative gay honeymoon market.
• are humorous,

What else characterizes the genre editorial cartoon?
They
• are humorous
• tell about real and up-to-date events,
• are ilustrations / drawings,
• are satirical criticisms of politics and society,
• require the reader’s use of previous knowledge to be understood.

3.2 GENRE 4: COMIC STRIPS
Definition: a short series of funny drawings with a small amount of
writing which is usually published in a newspaper. (Cambridge Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary, 2008, p. 275)
What do you think characterizes the genre comic strip? Study the two
examples of comic strips below.

PRACTICE 1
COMIC STRIP A

66

Source[4]

Read the statements below about the comic strip above. Are they true
(T) or false (F)?
All the young lady wanted was to be Rodney’s first priority.
The young lady didn’t want Rodney to always stay by her side.
By crying, Rodney showed he was not ready for a committed
relationship.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

COMIC STRIP A: ANSWERS
( T ) All the young lady wanted was to be Rodney’s first priority.
( F ) The young lady didn’t want Rodney to always stay by her side.
( T ) By crying, Rodney showed he was not ready for a committed
relationship.

PRACTICE 2
COMIC STRIP B

Source[5]
Read the statements below about the comic strip above. Are they true
(T) or false (F)?
Garfield and his owner are leaving a furniture store.
Garfield’s owner is happy because Garfield is a very good cat.
67

Garfield did the same thing the cat in the picture below is doing.

Source[6]
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

COMIC STRIP B: ANSWERS
( T ) Garfield and his owner are leaving a furniture store.
( F ) Garfield’s owner is happy because Garfield is a very good cat.
( T ) Garfield did the same thing the cat in the picture below is
doing.
As you probably know
Comic strips
use visual and verbal organization to create the story,
 show actions organized in panels,
 have dialogues which come in bubbles,
 are written in capital letters,
 reproduce oral language,
 use a lot of punctuation marks (question, exclamation, and quotation marks,
and dashes for example).


PRACTICE 3
Now let’s work on another genre. A genre you are very familiar with.
Genre: List
Read the definition below extracted from the Cambridge Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary, 2008, p. 836.
Definition: a record of short pieces of information, such as
people’s names, usually written or printed with a single thing on
each line and often ordered in a way that makes a particular thing
easy to find: a shopping list.
As you already know there are other types of list such as a wedding to

68

do list, a new year’s resolution list. We can also make a list of
Brazilian Presidents, a list of Disney movies, an alphabetical list of names,
a list of Beatles songs in chronological order, etc.
What do these lists have in common? What characterizes them as a
list?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

1. The items of the list are displayed one below the other,
2. Each new item is introduced by means of a marker – an
arrow or a hyphen, for example,
3. Discourse markers (besides, in addition to, furthermore) are
not used.

PRACTICE 4
Genre: Headline
Read the definition below extracted from [7]
Definition: a heading at the top of an article or page in a
newspaper or magazine
Study the following examples of headlines and then identify the
characteristics they have in common.

In ordinary life, we usually don't make a distinction between what
people really say and what they imply, accepting all together as "what they
said". So if I say, for example,
Barry Bang-Bang didn't manage to rob the bank.
you might report this to a friend as "Manolisa said Barry Bang-Bang
tried to rob the bank but couldn't" or still "Manolisa said Barry Bang-Bang
tried to rob the bank but was not successful" even though I didn't literally
say that Barry Bang-Bang tried to rob the bank and that he didn't succeed. I
only implied these two pieces of information. How did I imply them?
Because words, among other elements in discourse, give clues as to the way
in which meanings are implied. In the sentence above, the clues are the verb
"managed" and the negative adverb "not".
According to the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary (2008, p.
869), to manage means to succeed in doing something, especially
something difficult. Applying this definition to our sentence, we can say that
(a) it is not an easy task to rob a bank and that (b) the robber tried hard to
succeed. These two meanings are implied by the verb to manage. But the
sentence itself brings the negative adverb "not" that denies the definition
supplied above – "didn't manage". Thus, based on these evidences, we can
conclude that Bang-Bang tried to rob the bank but was not successful. In
this case, the conventional meaning of words functioned as a clear indicator
of the intended message.
A picture could have contributed, as a clue, to the retrieval of the
implied meaning discussed above. See illustration below.
VERSÃO TEXTUAL DO FLASH

Barry Bang-Bang didn't manage to rob the bank.

As you can see, the meaning the sentence Barry Bang-Bang didn’t
manage to rob the bank conveys with words, the cartoon conveys
visually. Together, the image, the verb to manage, and the negative adverb
not lead us to conclude that Barry Bang-Bang failed in his attempt to rob
the bank. Still, the illustration above adds new pieces of information to the
ones already implied by the sentence – the police arrived, the police
prevented the robbery from happening, the police caught the robber. From
these, we can conclude that Barry Bang-Bang tried to rob the bank but
failed in his attempt because the police arrived to prevent the robbery from
happening and to take him to prison.

72

IMPLIED MEANING can be defined as a piece of
information that is conveyed by means of a text (of any kind visual, auditory, tactile) in discourse (context of use). If, for
instance, a woman comes into a room with a wet umbrella, we
can infer that it’s raining outside. You are not going to think, for
example, that she is using the umbrella to protect herself from the
fallen leaves. What is the clue for your reasoning? the wet
umbrella.

VERSÃO TEXTUAL DO FLASH

According to Grice (1975) and Gabriellatos (1999), the retrieval of
implied meaning, a process called inferencing, is essential for effective
communication for two reasons. The conventional meaning of words is
not always a clear indicator of the intended message of
speakers/writers. Let’s analyze the following example to make things
clear.

Suppose you hear the question Where's the cheese sandwich? It's
obvious the image that is activated by your brain is the one below.

Source [3]
Consequently, the answer may be something like "It's on the kitchen
table.", "It's in the fridge.", or still "I haven't made it yet." But if, instead, you
hear the dialogue below?

EXAMPLE
A: Where's the cheese sandwich?
B: He is sitting over there by the window.
(Adapted from YULE, 1996, p. 20; apud GABRIELATOS, 1999)
73

It is very likely that, at first, you find this excerpt of discourse incoherent
because you simply can’t understand the meaning conveyed by it. You will
ask questions such as, “How can a cheese sandwich be sitting by the
window?”. Then, you will manage to find a context in which the dialogue
above can make sense. This time you will ask questions like “In which
situation, would such a dialogue be appropriate?”, “Is there an appropriate
context for it?”, “What does A want to know exactly?”, “How can he be
anaphoric to the cheese sandwich?". Then, you come to the conclusion
that the conventional meaning of words is not always a clear indicator of the
intended message of speakers/writers. In this specific case, you may need
something more to help you retrieve implied meaning: the context of
situation. Let’s contextualize the dialogue and see if you can infer what “the
cheese sandwich” refers to.
VERSÃO TEXTUAL DO FLASH

Waitress: Where's is the cheese sandwich?
Waiter: He is over there by the window.

As can you see, this is an exchange between two waiters. In this case,
between a waitress and a waiter. By asking the question, "Where's the cheese
sandwich?", the waitress is referring to the customer by his order (the cheese
sandwich = the customer who ordered the cheese sandwich). Referring to
customers by their order is quite common in such contexts. But you may ask,
"Why did she ask this question?". Now that the dialogue is contextualized,
we can infer she did so in order to serve the right customer. With this
example, it is proven that the conventional meaning of words is not always a
clear indicator of the implied message.
We can infer about (= retrieve implied meaning from) all sorts of things.
We can make inferences, for example, about the meaning of a word or
expression (as in the first example of this lesson), a writer's feelings or
intentions, the development of a text, who a text is aimed at (= target
audience), the setting/characters/themes in literary texts, etc.

PRACTICE
Read Text 1 and Text 2, both excerpts from a holiday brochure. Then
do the exercises.
Text 1:
The hotel is very lively, and is especially suitable for young
single people and young couples looking for a fun-filled break.
It is close to the main resort with its nightclubs and music
venues. The beach is about a 10-minute drive away.

(GOULD, 2006, p. 33)

74

What implied meaning(s) can you retrieve from Text 1? Identify the
clues that helped you retrieve it (them).
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

IMPLIED MEANING: The hotel is not suitable for families
with young children or for older people who want to relax in peace
and quiet.
CLUES:
1. Families with young children are not mentioned in the text.
2. Older people who want to relax in peace and quiet are not
mentioned in the text either.
3. "The hotel is very lively", perhaps meaning the hotel is noisy.
Lots of things go on late at night when children are trying to sleep.
4. "suitable for single people", meaning the hotel is not suitable
for families and, for this reason, they are not mentioned in the text.
5. The text mentions the hotel is for people who "[look] for funfilled break", meaning older people who want to relax in peace and
quiet may not find the hotel very attractive.
6. The text adds that there are "nightclubs and music venues"
nearby, meaning that young children won't benefit from them.

Text 2:
Guided tours of ancient Byzantine churches, and visits to
the magnificent monasteries are all included in the cost, as are
two evenings of wine-tasting and a talk by a local historian on
the island's past.

(GOULD, 2006, p. 34)
Which of these is an inference you might make? Identify the textual
clues that helped you retrieve the implied meanings from TEXT 2.
a. ( ) This is a holiday for young people who want to dance, drink and
relax by the pool.
b. ( ) This is a holiday for sports enthusiasts looking for an
adventurous, energetic time.
c. ( ) This is a holiday for people interested in the culture of the island
and learning more about its people and places.
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

c. ( X ) This is a holiday for people interested in the culture of
the island and learning more about its people and places.
75

IMPORTANT
It is important to remind you that we can infer about (= retrieve
implied meaning from) all sorts of things. In the excerpts above (Text 1
and Text 2), the inferences made are related to whom the text was aimed
at (= the target audience).

Introduction
You are already aware of the fact that we can retrieve implied meaning
from all sorts of things. Here, we are going to see how implied meanings
can be retrieved and get to know the generating sources of inferences
involved in this process.
Inferences can be cognitively produced from three generating sources:
prior knowledge, textual elements and also contextual elements. Alone or
together, these sources can help us identify and retrieve implicit meaning so
that inferential understanding can happen. In this lesson, we are going to
deal with prior knowledge only. Let's start defining it before we can
understand the role it plays in the process of retrieving implied information.
Prior knowledge has to do with the knowledge the listener/reader
already has in his mind, being resultant from his personal experiences
(KOCH & ELIAS, 2006, p. 42). This type of knowledge is fundamentally
necessary for a given text to be understood as it enables the listener/reader
to construct meaning - especially the implied one.
Let's take a look at the example below.

"THE ROYAL WEDDING IS JUST LIKE A FAIRY TALE.
EXCEPT, INSTEAD OF LIVING HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE
PRINCESS IS STALKED BY THE PAPARAZZI FOR THE NEXT 60
YEARS."
Source [1]
In order to understand the text above, we should start by identifying its
genre. Do you think you can do it without any help? Well, what you have
above is an illustration containing a message that is related to a current event
and personality and this leads us to an editorial cartoon. The current event in
question is the royal wedding of Prince William (personality) and Catherine
Middleton. The mentioning of this event and personality is implied by The
royal wedding and princess.
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Britain's Prince William (L)
After that, we have to identify instances of intertextuality because the
and his wife Catherine,
cartoon above only gains meaning through its referencing or evocation to
Duchess of Cambridge, leave other texts. The intertextual sources are implied by fairy tales/living
after their wedding ceremony happily ever after and the princess is stalked by the paparazzi.
in Westminster Abbey, in
central London, April 29,
2011
Source [2]

The first, making an allusion to tales for kids and the second, to Princess
Diana’s death. Let’s take a close look at the cartoon’s caption to better
understand what this is all about.
THE ROYAL WEDDING IS JUST LIKE A FAIRY TALE.
EXCEPT, INSTEAD OF LIVING HAPPILY EVER AFTER, THE
PRINCESS IS STALKED BY THE PAPARAZZI FOR THE NEXT
60 YEARS.
As to fairy tales, we have two forms of allusion:
FAIRY TALES

(Traditional stories written for children which usually involve
imaginary creatures and magic. (CAMBRIDGE ADVANCED
LEARNER'S DICTIONARY, 2008, p. 505)

VERBAL ALLUSION

evidenced by the use of the noun "fairy tale" in The royal
wedding is just like a fairy tale and the formulaic ending living
happily ever after.
NON-VERBAL ALLUSION

evidenced by the pictorial text. In it, we can see a little girl sitting
on her daddy's knees and listening to him while he reads not about a
fairy story, but about the royal wedding.

78

The princess is stalked by the paparazzi [3] makes reference to Princess
Diana's death about some 14 years ago. It came out "she was killed fleeing
paparazzi that clearly broke the speed limit to get pictures of her in 1997.
Many critics argue till this day, that Princess Diana would still be alive if the
paparazzi hadn't chased her." Click here [4]
With the understanding of these implied meanings, we can now manage
to understand the overall message conveyed by the cartoon.
A father, with his daughter on his knees, reads a book about “the royal
wedding”. He explains to his little girl who probably understands nothing
about weddings that the royal wedding is just like a fairy tale (something
that is familiar to her). By doing this, the father allows his daughter to
apply meaning to something she doesn’t know about. This way, she can
use “just like a fairy tale” as a bridge to infer the meaning of “royal
wedding”. But this piece of information is not enough to make her
understand what a “royal wedding” really is. Therefore, the father adds
“except, instead of living happily ever after, the princess is stalked by the
paparazzi for the next 60 years”. With this addition, the implied meaning
the girl retrieves might be “a royal wedding is not something good
because the princess and the prince don’t live happily ever after
and she, poor princess, is pursued by paparazzi for the rest of
her life”.
You might have perceived that not only you had to retrieve implied
meanings. The little girl had to do the same in order to understand the
message conveyed by her father. Both, you and the little girl, came to the
inference stated in the end of the previous paragraph. The only difference is
that you, but not the little girl, know how the real story involving paparazzi
and a princess ended because you have this prior knowledge. So, maybe we
should rephrase the implied meaning above: "a royal wedding is not
something good because the princess and the prince don't live
happily ever after and she, poor princess, can end up dead
pursued by paparazzi".
From what was stated above, we can conclude that our prior knowledge
is a key element to textual understanding. An extra piece of it may lead us to
79

further inferences as illustrated in the previous paragraph, while the lack of
it may limit the inferences we make as it prevents us from retrieving
important piece(s) of information. The more prior knowledge we have on a
topic, the better it is.

If you click here [5], you will have the chance to get more knowledge
about Princess Diana's life and death, which will enable you to make more
elaborate inferences about the editorial cartoon above.

PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
SUPERMAN VS. TITANO

Below, you will find a comics magazine cover where you can see
Superman in one of his adventures. Study it with attention to retrieve as
many instances of implied meaning as possible. Also, look for clues that
can work as evidences of implied meaning. Explain each and every piece of
implicit information retrieved with reference to this context of situation.
Make comments as to prior knowledge, intertext(uality), verbal and nonverbal allusions. Write your considerations in the form of a composition.
Save it in your portfolio.
CLICK HERE

Source [6]

FORUM
STRATOS CHOCOLATE BAR SMART KIDS COMMERCIAL

Now watch the video below searching for implied meanings. Then
discuss the questions that follow it.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W6GeEifhyg0&feature=youtu.be
[7]
Questions:
1. How smart do you think the boy is? Supply evidences to your
answer.
2. Is the baby born in the end of the video male or female? How do
you think the boy feels? Supply evidences to your answers.
3. Listen to the song played during the commercial. How does it
connect to the video? Don't forget to supply evidences to your answer.
You and Me Song - The Wannadies - w/ Lyrics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOSYBNhjCVQ [8]
4. What role did your prior knowledge play in helping understand
the TV commercial? Explain.

Source[1]
Let's consider the text entitled Jealousy drove lover to kill, extracted
from the BBC Homepage, to see how textual elements can help the reader
retrieve implicit meaning.

82

CLICK HERE TO READ THE TEXT

01
02
03
04
05

The Duchess of York's former assistant was an insecure
and possessive
woman who murdered her boyfriend with a cricket bat while
he slept in

their bed. She then plunged a 19-centimetre kitchen knife into
06 his chest.
07
Tom Cressman, was a wealthy businessman who loved
08
fast cars, vintage
09
boats, and the single life. He was sexually adventurous and
10
exchanged
11
fantasies by e-mail with another woman.
12
13
The former racing driver Sir Stirling Moss, a long-time friend
14 of the
15 Cressman family, said: "Tom was a bachelor who enjoyed his
16 freedom."
17
According to his mother, Barbara Cressman, "Jane
18
Andrews was very
jealous about Tom. On one occasion at a cocktail party, an old
friend who'd
known him for 25 years came up to him and asked if he was
married. He
said 'no' and she said 'oh good - I want to marry you'. Jane
rushed across the
room and grabbed him by the arm and said 'he's mine'."

While Jane and Tom were on holiday in the South of
France, she asked him
a direct question about marriage," said Lucinda Ellery-Sharp, a
close friend
of the couple. "And Tom gave her a direct answer. He didn't
want a family
with Jane because he thought she was unstable. Ultimately I
think she felt so
let down that she went into a blinding rage."
Adapted

from:
83

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1331605.stm[2]
With your prior knowledge of the English language and of coherence
(Unit 1 – Topic 3) and cohesion (Unit 2 – Topic 1), you can infer that the
highlighted words and expressions allude to Tom Cressman and Jane
Andrews. In this case, nobody had to make any kind of explicit explanation to
help you make such inference. You did it all by yourself. We believe it was a
somewhat automatic process as you are accustomed to doing that during
your oral and written interactions. Being so identifying the reference item of
a referent (Unit 2 – Topic 1) is something you do all the time without effort.
You certainly know that all the words in blue and all the ones in pink
are semantically related to Tom Cressman and Jane Andrews
respectively. What do we mean by "semantically related"? We mean that the
interpretation of one is dependent on that of another (Unit 2 – Topic 1). Let's
see how the understanding of semantically related items can help us retrieve
implied meaning. Consider the following excerpts from the text.
EXCERPT 1

The Duchess of York's former assistant was
an insecure
and possessive woman who murdered her boyfriend with a
cricket bat while he slept in their bed.
centimetre kitchen knife into his chest.

She then plunged a 19-

(ls. 1 - 3)
As you have probably noticed, the first three paragraphs of the text do
not identify Tom Cressman’s killer. Before discovering her name, we are
given some useful clues about her. These clues help us retrieve implied
meaning. Click here

Textual elements
(clues) related to

Implied meanings

Jane Andrews

The Duchess of York's
former assistant

Jane once worked, as an assistant,
for the Duchess of York, but
doesn't work anymore.

an insecure and
possessive person

Jane would not share Tom's love
and attention with anybody else.

who (= Jane) murdered
her boyfriend with a

Jane probably murdered her
boyfriend because she was
insecure and possessive in her

84

cricket bat

feelings.
Jane must be a strong woman.

EXCERPT 2

According to his mother, Barbara Cressman, "
Jane Andrews was
very jealous about Tom. (…)
Jane rushed across the room and grabbed
him by the arm and said 'he's mine'."
(ls. 9 – 13)
The clues identified in Excerpt 2 lead us to retrieve the implied
meanings listed in the chart below.
Click here
Textual elements
(clues) related to

Implied meanings

Jane Andrews

According to his
mother, Barbara
Cressman, " Jane
Andrews was very
jealous about Tom."

Jane rushed across
the room and grabbed
him by the arm and said
'he's mine'."

Jane was seen as a jealous
person by Tom's mother.
Jane was described as a
person who really thought
someone could easily take
her lover away from her.
Jane gave evidences that
she was really a jealous
person.
Jane was aggressive to an
old friend of Tom's because
she thought this friend
could take him away from
her.

EXCERPT 3

While
Jane and Tom were on holiday in the South of France,
>
she asked him a direct question about marriage," said Lucinda EllerySharp, a close friend of the couple. "And Tom gave >
her a direct
answer. He didn't want a family with
Jane because he thought
>
she was unstable. Ultimately I think >
she felt so let down that
>
she went into a blinding rage."
(ls. 14 – 18)
The clues listed below, all identified from Excerpt 3, help us
retrieve important pieces of implicit information that contribute to the

While Jane and Tom
were on holiday in the
South of France, she
asked him a direct
question about marriage,"
said Lucinda Ellery-Sharp,
a close friend of the
couple.

It's not at all impractical
that Jane firmly believed
Tom would propose to her
while they were on holiday
in the South of France.
As Tom didn't propose to
her (according to her
expectations), Jane
decided to ask him if he
ever intended to marry
her.

"And Tom gave her a
direct answer."

Jane heard something
completely different from
what she expected to hear.
In fact, she listened to Tom
saying, "no".

He didn't want a family
with Jane because he
thought she was
unstable.

As Tom thought Jane
suffered from sudden and
extreme changes in her
mental and emotion state,
he didn't consider her
suitable for marriage.

Ultimately I think

she

felt so let down that she
went into a blinding rage."

Jane might have felt so
humiliated that she was
possessed by an
uncontrolled anger and
ended up killing Tom.

As you might have perceived, all the meanings made explicit above are
conveyed by the text Jealousy drove lover to kill even though its
author and the characters involved in the story didn't literally say them. All
these meanings were, as you know, only implied by means of the clues we
identified.

PRACTICE 1
Consider the title of the article, its illustration and caption. What kind
of implicit meaning can you retrieve from them? Do you think with only
the meanings implied from what is supplied below you can write a brief
summary of the story?

86

CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

When we read the title Jealousy drove lover to kill we have no
idea of who killed whom. We have no clue of who the jealous lover and
the victim of jealousy are.
The picture, showing both murder and victim, doesn't clarify our
doubts. It just confirms the case has two persons involved, one who
loved too much and another who, it seems to us, loved less (=
inference 1) and for this reason was killed (= inference 2). However,
we still don't know if the killer is the man or the woman. The same is
true for the victim.
The caption Andrews expected Cressman to propose to
her throws light on the story. Finally we can understand that
Andrews, the woman, expected Cressman to propose to her and as he
didn't do that he was killed (Inference 3).
These three inferences generated from the retrieval of implicit
meaning are enough to write a brief summary of the story: Andrews, a
jealous woman, killed her lover Cressman because he didn't propose
to her as she seems to have expected.

If you want to practice a little bit more, you can go ahead and try to
retrieve implied meaning from the textual elements related to Tom
Cressman – all in blue.

CONTEXTUAL ELEMENTS
One more time, let's consider the text entitled Jealousy drove lover
to kill, extracted from the BBC Homepage, to see how contextual elements
can help the reader retrieve implicit meaning.
The understanding of a single sentence or part of it may depend on its
context of production. Being so, in order to understand a text, oral or
written, in its totality, it is necessary to have access to the socio-historical
context in which it was produced. That's why it is important to know under
which circumstances a written text, for instance, was produced or to know
who wrote it, during which period of time the author lived, if he was driven
by certain intentions when he wrote it, etc. In other words, to be understood,
a text may be totally or partly dependent on its socio-historical context. The
87

same is true as to implied/implicit meanings.
The contextual elements of a text are clues that help us identify the set of
circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc. Let's
go back to the text Jealousy drove lover to kill to make things clear.
Study the excerpt below. What do the arrows (→) point to? Why are
these elements being called attention to? Do you consider them relevant to
the understanding of the message conveyed by this text? Why (not)? What
do they have to do with implied meaning/implicit information? Think for a
while before you read our considerations about them.

Well, you are right. They are all contextual elements and they are really
important to the complete understanding of the text we have discussed so
far. Without recognizing them, you may miss many relevant pieces of
information. Let’s see.
BBC

Stands for the
British Broadcasting Corporation, a British
organization that broadcasts on television, radio and the Internet.
UK

Stands for the United Kingdom [3], the country of Great Britain
(England, Wales, Scotland) and Northern Ireland.
CRICKET

Cricket [4] is a sport first played in southern England in the 16th
century. By the end of the 18th century, it had developed into the national
sport of England.
Source [5]
THE DUCHESS OF YORK'S

The Duchess of York's name is
Sarah Ferguson [6]. She is a
British charity patron [7], spokesperson [8], writer, film producer,
television personality and former member of the British Royal Family
[9]. She was married to Queen Elizabeth II [10]'s second son, Prince
Andrew, Duke of York [11], from 1986 to 1996, when they got a divorce.
Source [12]

88

2011

Presente days.

PRATICE 2
Now that you have all this knowledge about the contextual elements
identified in the text Jealousy drove lover to kill, do you think you can
retrieve any implicit meaning using them as clues?
CLICK HERE TO CHECK THE ANSWERS

These contextual elements set the story in a certain place and
time. Place? England, land of the royal family. A place where
everything related to them has the attention of the world and becomes
news. Time? Nowadays. The 21st century, which means the article is
referring to real people and the member of the royal family alluded to
is somebody who can be seen in the streets of London. As you can see,
all these are implicit meanings retrieved from the clues BBC, UK,
cricket, the Duchess of York, and 2011.
Now we should ask ourselves why the text opens with The
Dutchess of York's former assistant was an insecure and
possessive woman who murdered her boyfriend with a cricket bat...
and not simply Jane Andrews was an insecure and possessive
woman who murdered her boyfriend with a cricket bat.... The answer
is obvious. Jane Andrews is an unknown person, has no glamour,
while a member of the royal family, though a former member, will
catch people's attention.